- Israel: Netanyahu seeks pardon in corruption case
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Israel’s president for a pardon for bribery and fraud charges and an end to a five-year corruption trial, arguing that it would be in the ‘public interest.’ … Presidential pardons in Israel have almost never been granted before conviction, with the one notable exception of a 1986 case involving the Shin Bet security service. A pre-emptive pardon of a politician in a corruption case without an admission of guilt would be precedent-setting and highly controversial. The submission on Sunday comes weeks after Donald Trump wrote to Herzog to ask him to pardon Netanyahu, who has been on trial since 2020 on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, involving alleged political favours for wealthy backers in return for gifts or positive media coverage.” (11/30/25)
- Spot bitcoin, ether ETFs recover momentum with first net-positive inflow week since October
Source: The Block
“U.S. spot bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds posted their first combined week of net inflows since late October, signaling a potential turnaround following a brutal stretch of institutional outflows. According to SoSoValue data, spot bitcoin ETFs recorded approximately $70.1 million in net inflows for the shortened trading week ending Nov. 28, which included just four trading days due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Spot Ethereum ETFs fared even better, logging roughly $312.6 million in net inflows over the same period. The positive flows mark a sharp departure from recent weeks.” (11/29/25)
- Russia: Regime bans Human Rights Watch in widening crackdown on critics
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Russian authorities have outlawed Human Rights Watch as an ‘undesirable organisation,’ a label that, under a 2015 law, makes involvement with it a criminal offence. Friday’s designation means the international human rights group must stop all work in Russia, and opens those who cooperate with or support the organisation to prosecution. HRW has repeatedly accused Russia of suppressing dissenters and committing war crimes during its ongoing war against Ukraine. … The decision by the Russian prosecutor general’s office is the latest move in a crackdown on Kremlin critics, journalists and activists, which has intensified since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.” (11/29/25)
- US FDA claims Covid shots killed 10 children
Source: NBC News
“The director of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine division told agency staff in a memo that an internal review found that at least 10 children died ‘after and because of receiving’ the Covid vaccine. The 3,000-word memo, obtained by NBC News, was written by Dr. Vinay Prasad, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. In it, Prasad claims that agency staff determined that ‘no fewer than 10’ of 96 child deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, between 2021 and 2024 were ‘related’ to Covid vaccination. He said the true numbers could be higher, accusing the agency of ignoring the safety concerns for years.” (11/29/25)
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-covid-vaccines-children-deaths-rcna246437
- Regimes endorse protecting sharks amid overfishing worries
Source: New York Post
“Governments at a wildlife trade conference have adopted greater protections for over 70 species of sharks and rays amid concerns that overfishing is driving some to the brink of extinction. The measures, approved Friday at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Uzbekistan, bans the trade in oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays as well as whale sharks. It would strengthen regulations for gulper sharks, smoothhound sharks and the tope shark, which means they can be traded, but there must be proof the sources are legal, sustainable and traceable. Governments also agreed to enact zero-annual export quotas for several species of guitarfishes and wedgefishes, meaning the legal international trade will mostly be halted.” (11/29/25)
- African Union suspends Guinea-Bissau after coup; former president flees to Republic of Congo
Source: Associated Press
“The African Union suspended Guinea-Bissau following a military coup, saying it won’t tolerate unconstitutional changes. … Speaking to The Associated Press on Saturday evening, former president Umaro Sissoco Embaló’s chief of staff said the ousted leader traveled to the Republic of the Congo overnight and arrived Saturday morning. … Guinea-Bissau, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been dogged by coups and attempted coups since its independence from Portugal more than 50 years ago, including a coup attempt in October.” (11/29/25)
https://apnews.com/article/guineabissau-african-union-coup-4b9c1c983ec563534cab435436f2ebad
- Mamdani and Trump are two peas in the authoritarian pod
Source: Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut“The Mamdani-Trump meeting was the embodiment of what I’ve long predicted and feared. The populist right swept away conservatives’ traditional belief in limited government and market-based reform — and replaced it with a cultural agenda fueled by anger and dependent on the wiles of a Dear Leader. It’s been successfully politically (although not economically and it’s dangerous to the health of our democracy). It was only a matter of time before Democrats gave up on their flaccid approach and embraced left-wing populism in return. This is the dictionary definition of the Horseshoe Theory, where extremes on the right and left are not divided at the far ends of a long line but at the ends of a horseshoe. Populists on both sides believe in an activist government, although they have different motivations. As fundamentally collectivist, both movements are remarkably similar.” (11/28/25)
- In pardon of narco trafficker, Trump destroys his own case for war
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos“The Trump administration has literally killed more than 80 suspected drug smugglers by blowing their small boats out of the water since September, but this week the president has reportedly decided to pardon one of the biggest cocaine traffickers of them all. If that doesn’t make any sense to you, then join the club.” (11/29/25)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-pardon-drug-trafficker/
- Socialism with a Fig Leaf
Source: Free Association
by Sheldon Richman“What work does democratic perform in the phrase democratic socialism? It’s a fig leaf intended to conceal what would presumably be repugnant to most people: the coercive regimentation inherent in socialism, whether international (Marxist) or national (fascist). Socialism has a nasty record dating back to 1917, so socialists have felt compelled to clean up its image. Democracy is supposed to do the cleaning up. But does it? Could it? Before we get to that, we should remind ourselves that no single conception of socialism exists.” (11/28/25)
https://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2025/11/tgif-socialism-with-fig-leaf.html
- Steve Bannon Was Epstein’s Comeback Consultant. Where’s the Uproar?
Source: The Bulwark
by Mona Charen“To be unmasked as an Epstein crony is about the most embarrassing revelation for a public figure one can imagine at this moment, and sure enough, former treasury secretary and Harvard president Larry Summers, who exchanged scores of emails with the convicted pedophile, has seen his reputation shredded. … Summers has withdrawn from the Center for American Progress, the Yale Budget Lab, the board of directors of Open AI, the Center for Global Development, the Brookings Institution, and the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and has taken a leave of absence from Harvard. … Why has there been no similar accountability for another of Epstein’s pen pals — Steve Bannon?” (11/30/25)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/steve-bannon-jeffrey-epstein-comeback-consultant
- Lessons of the Ukraine War
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman“The first lesson was that Ukraine was stronger than Russian or American authorities expected. Most commenters expected Russia to win rapidly, not unreasonable given the relative size of the two countries’ population and economies. They didn’t. It took longer to learn but the second lesson was that so was Russia. Their military performance was not impressive but neither sanctions nor the cost of three and a half years of a very bloody war seems to have had much effect on the economy, the conditions for Russian civilians, or Putin’s hold on power.” (11/28/25)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/lessons-of-the-ukraine-war
- US Regime Change Interventionism Is Reliably Disastrous
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“Trump has bizarrely announced that the airspace over Venezuela is ‘closed’, posting the following on Truth Social on Saturday: ‘To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY.’ It isn’t even clear what precisely the president means by this. Are they about to start shooting down Venezuelan aircraft like they’ve been blowing up boats? Are they preparing for a ground invasion? Whatever it is, things are looking ugly. Washington is banging the war drums trying to justify regime change interventionism in Venezuela under the ridiculous claim that it’s about fighting drug trafficking just as Trump announces that he will pardon former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández, who the US convicted of drug trafficking charges just last year.” (12/01/25)
- Most in GOP say: No so fast, Mr. President
Source: Boston Globe
by Eugene Scott“Some liberals assume that supporters of President Trump will allow the president to get away with anything and everything. It’s a fair assumption, considering that despite his record-low approval ratings, most Republicans still look at his job performance favorably. But a new study shows that most Republican voters have little to no appetite for an authoritarian leader. Fewer than 30 percent of Republicans support giving Trump broad authority, including the power to bypass Congress, to achieve his goals, according to a report released last week from the Johns Hopkins University Agora Institute, where I am a visiting fellow. … Despite Trump and many of his most diehard supporters often proclaiming that voters gave the president a mandate to do whatever he wants by any means necessary, the data suggest that the facts couldn’t be further from the truth.” (11/29/25)
- Is Trump already a lame duck?
Source: Los Angeles Times
by Robin Abcarian“The signs of lame duckery grow as Trump’s popularity dips. His party was trounced in the off-year elections this month. Inflation, which he promised to whip, has not abated. Prices remain high. Consumer confidence has plummeted. Health insurance premiums are about to skyrocket. The Supreme Court does not appear to be looking kindly on his tariff schemes, nor on his plan to end birthright citizenship. Lower courts have defied him at almost every turn, most recently tossing out the absurd criminal indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James. Now members of his own party are beginning to stand up to him.” (11/30/25)
- The Russification of America: On Being Female in a Potentially Fascist Country
Source: TomDispatch
by Andrea Mazzarino“It’s strange so many years later, in the United States of America, to feel as if I’m living in a country threatening to become like the Russia of Vladimir Putin that I spent years experiencing earlier in this century. To start, let me tell you a little something about that. For decades as a young adult, I lived and traveled in Russia. I was an anthropology doctoral student and human rights worker, studying the effects of President Vladimir Putin’s centralizing policies and that country’s Christian nationalist media on the everyday lives of Russians. In one of my last projects, I investigated the government’s practice of separating kids with disabilities (and poorer kids generally) from their parents and detaining them in closed institutions.” (11/30/25)
- Knitters Need Free Trade: Trump’s Tariffs Are Making Crafting Supplies Harder To Get
Source: Reason
by Fiona Harrigan“Tariffs prevent all sorts of voluntary transactions that shape lives and culture in big — and often inconspicuous — ways. That means shops that won’t be started, gifts that won’t be made by hand, and hobbies that won’t be taken up. And more immediately, tariffs are punishing business owners who want to help Americans fill their lives with more creativity.” (12/25)
- Wasserman Schultz blames Trump, guns for DC attack but spares Biden
Source: Fox News
by Jonathan Turley“Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., has long performed a key role for many on the left [sic]. When there is an argument barred by decency or decorum, Wasserman Schultz is happy to make it, from attacking journalists in her defense of censorship to attempting to rig an election and bar Republicans from ballots as part of her defense of democracy. However, on Friday, the Florida representative set a new low in American politics: attempting to assign some of the blame for the shooting of two National Guardsmen on President Donald Trump. On CNN’s ‘News Central,’ Wasserman Schultz declared: ‘This is a deeply concerning situation, but, you know, it’s one that I think we have to — it begs the question, would an individual have flown across the country to target law enforcement officers in Washington, D.C.? And, I mean, the answer is likely no.” (11/29/25)
- Term limits will not make Congress work better
Source: The Hill
by Jaehun Lee“Our system of government already empowers voters to remove ineffective, corrupt or otherwise problematic representatives and senators. All members of Congress must run for reelection if they wish to continue serving. If constituents are displeased with the body of work that their elected representatives have put in during a given term, they can simply decline to reelect them.” (11/29/25)
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5623607-congress-term-limits-debate/
- Amnesty Confirms What It’s Plain to See: Israel’s Genocide in Gaza Continues
Source: Informed Comment
by Juan Cole“Amnesty International concludes that, over a month after a ceasefire was agreed upon in Gaza and all living Israeli hostages were returned, the Israeli authorities continue to pursue the textbook definition of genocide ‘by continuing to deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.’ Moreover, Israeli leaders continue openly to affirm that this course of action is intentional on their parts. … The Secretary General of Amnesty International, Agnes Callamard, observed that ‘Palestinians remain held within less than half of the territory of Gaza, in the areas least capable of supporting life, with humanitarian aid still severely restricted.’ Amnesty says that the Israeli military continues to occupy on the order of 55% of the Gaza Strip. There has been no move to rehabilitate the farmland that has been deliberately destroyed by the Israelis over two years or rebuild livestock.” (11/30/25)
https://www.juancole.com/2025/11/ceasefire-smokescreen-continued.html
- The FDA Memo That Shakes the World
Source: Brownstone Institute
by staff“Over the last November weekend of 2025, a memo circulated throughout the Federal Food and Drug Administration that might well trigger the entire unraveling of the US vaccine program with a focus on the mandated Covid shot in particular. The author is Dr. Vinay Prasad, who was a moderate critic during the Covid but has become ferocious since his appointment as the head of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research of the FDA. … It is reprinted in full below.” (11/29/25)
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-fda-memo-that-shakes-the-world/
- Politics Is Destroying Civil Society — But Gratitude Can Save Us
Source: Mindset Shifts
by Barry Brownstein“As more Americans make politics central to their identity, civil society erodes. Is authoritarianism the inevitable result of a quest to find meaning through politics?” (11/28/25)
https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/p/politics-is-destroying-civil-societybut
- A Sick Society, part 1
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“The irrational murders of two children and the wounding of several more at the hands of a killer in Minneapolis remind us again that Americans live in a very sick society. Not surprisingly, we hear the standard response whenever this sort of thing happens, which is on a regular basis — that we just need more gun control. Never mind that the killer’s guns were all legally acquired and that the shootings took place in a mandatory ‘gun-free’ zone. What Americans do not want to confront is the more basic question: Why does this sort of random, irrational killing occur on a regular basis here in the United States? After all, there is widespread gun ownership in Switzerland, and yet the Swiss don’t experience these types of regularly occurring irrational mass killings.” (11/28/25)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/a-sick-society-part-1/
- Do Something About Prices, Republicans, Or You’re Going To Lose
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter“I absolutely love seeing the left-wingers and corporate media squirm and whine about deportations, I really do. Every little story about how someone who ‘never did nothing to nobody’ that ends with someone here unlawfully makes me smile. ‘No one is above the law,’ Democrats routinely say without irony, which is fighting harder than they fight for anyone other than child genital mutilation to keep gang members, wife beaters and any other kind of illegal [sic] alien from being subjected to our laws. They hate you, they hate us, they hate everything and want to see whatever they can’t control be destroyed so they can replace it with institutions designed to make you subservient to them. And third-worlders who can’t speak English or even read in their own language will always be subservient/obedient to them. This is why I’m hopeful about the midterms.” (11/30/25)
- Unattended Baggage, episode 319
Source: Unattended Baggage
“The more we know, the less we understand.” (11/29/25)
https://unattendedbaggage.substack.com/p/episode-319-the-more-we-know-the
- Fountainhead Forum, episode 393
Source: Fountainhead Forum
“Larry Sanger on Wikipedia and how to fix it.” (11/29/25)
https://rumble.com/v72ei86-ff-393-larry-sanger-on-wikipedia-and-how-to-fix-it.html
- The Bulwark Podcast, 11/29/25
Source: The Bulwark
“Trump’s Legal Blitz Has Hit a Wall (w/ George Packer).” (11/29/25)
- The Good Fight, 11/29/25
Source: Yascha Mounk
“Sven Beckert on How Capitalism Made the Modern World.” (11/29/25)
- Free Talk Live, 11/29/25
Source: Free Talk Live
“Thanksgiving with activists :: Quebec to ban public prayer :: Is covering your skin for your husband ‘freedom?’ :: Open AI shut down their safety team :: Trump is using one shooter to crack down on all immigrants :: The ridiculousness of ‘This Land is Your Land, My Land’ song :: Economic pressure to get men to join the military :: Shout out to Ron Paul :: Are Muslims wearing fetish outfits? :: Trump basically declaring war with Venezuela :: Does Trump want a third term? :: The CIA started by Nazis and MI6 and running drugs :: The penny worth more than a Bitcoin? :: 2025-11-29 Hosts: Bonnie, Riley O Bill, Angelo.” (11/29/25)